Wearing

It is now September……… and I cringe when I read what I thought I could do at the beginning of the year. Once the flood gates opened in March they just did not close. The simple truth is that I adore clothes as much as I adore shoes and not being able to indulge is worse than an alcoholic going through withdrawals.

So disclosure time…. two glorious silk pieces have made their way into my wardrobe. Plus a beautiful vintage red silk Chinese jacket which might just get an airing at the LB premiere next month.

Two new pairs of RMs and a nifty pair of sandal/lace-up courts from fave shoe brand Hogel.

And lots of basics to last me through the lean years of not quite retirement. This includes must have NYD jeans. NYD are an American brand that fit just right (for me anyhow).

New boots – thank you RM

It was a good try ….. but ……March clothes purchased = 2

And try I did. Now it is the end of March. Only three months into the year and I have done it. Submitted to temptation. At first I felt really guilty about having bought clothing but a round of confession sorted that out. To start with the fall from grace was a $16 preloved jacket. Not a lot of money and my friend Nat actually said that it didn’t count because it was under $20. Not so hard to convince my self that he was actually right. And after giving into the first temptation everything else just followed and now the beautiful jewel-like reversible chinese jacket that I had lusted after at the vintage shop now sits in my wardrobe.

Is it possible to go for a year without buying clothes?

Glebe Markets with the Treasure who decided that the fastest and easiest way to make some money was to sell all her clothes. And she did make a profit out of the excursion. Me, well not giving into temptation was never my strongest point. So from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon there I was surrounded by temptation of all sorts. And believe me in the “good old days’ of clothes buying I would have snapped up a couple of lovely vintage bargains. Things I loved were the Peruvian miniature oil painting lockets; the brooches made out of broken china and the hand dyed scarves. Umm, I did buy one of them! But a scarf isn’t clothing – right?

February clothes purchased = nil (clever me but its hard going)

But I do have a question. Are shoes clothes? I tend to think not. Yes they do cover parts of the anatomy but I think they are a necessity rather than an option. After all you don’t get sore feet when you are not wearing clothes, unless you are not wearing shoes either. Think about it. Ok I am one of the few people I know who has a separate wardrobe for shoes. But just look at them. Look at them! Two pieces of leather (mostly) that promise to take you anywhere you want to go. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz I have bright patent red shoes and all I have to do is click my heels and ………………..

January clothes purchased = nil (but tempted)

No clothes for twelve months, that’s not to say I will be naked for twelve months (heaven forbid).

The idea is not to actually purchase ANY clothes for twelve months.

I’ve now told enough people now to look really, really stupid if I don’t see it through. And how hard can it be really?

So here is the idea. Instead of spending money on new clothes for the next twelve months I go “shopping” in my wardrobe. This isn’t my idea. Its something that I came across online and thought yes, well, ok, but what about the reality. And then I looked in my wardrobe. There’s a lot of money tied up in there which is ok if you actually wear the clothes, but what about the ones you dont?

I am ashamed to say that the clothes I own (this is clothes only mind you) could possibly clothe the women of a small Vietnamese village for years to come.

And so the challenge has begun.

But I must add my daughter, who knows me well, and knows just how much I love clothes and fabrics, thinks that this challenge is a total joke. She says I won’t last a month.

So for the next twelve months it will be brooches (like the one above), scarves and clothes that require imagination.